[footnote: now i would much rather listen to the mire-of-morose bands of that era - Alice of Chains above all, but probably Kyuss and possibly even Wool whoever the fuck they were - than any of them lo-fi record-clerk collector/zine-ed type bands]

5 comments:

Arturo Calderon
said...

Hi, Simon. By reading Energy Flash and some of your articles on hip hop is realy clear that anything that is too backpack/indieslacker/ geektronica is not going to get any favour from you and I kind of see why. Some undie hip hop is too focus on "complex" rhymes instead of beats, bands like Car Seat Headrest are too musically conservative and some albums by Autechre and Squarepusher are weird from the sake of being weird. I would like to know if you favour any "indie" or "slacker rock album from the nineties apart from "Yrself Steam" and "Slanted and enchanted". Greetings from Lima, Peru.

i liked the all the slacker-rock stuff in the late 80s - like Dinosaur Jnr, Replacements, Husker Du etc. I was pretty into the 90s lo-fi stuff at first but then it started to seem a dead end, or at least not pushing forward the way that the early post-rock stuff (Seefeel, Main, Techno Animal, Disco Inferno, Insides, Pram, Laika, Moonshake etc etc) was. Like it was record-collector rock.

But i did like Thinking Fellers Union. Royal Trux were one of my favorite groups of that era - listened to Cats and Dogs recently and it still sounded amazing. Probably it would be Slanted and Enchanted and the early Pavement EPs that still sounded really good to me, but it's been a long while since i listened. Similary it's been a long time since i listened to Mercury Rev - loved that album and Boces and "Carwash Hair"

This has made me wanna look up Wool on youtube.....almost. I recall the name but I'm not sure I ever heard them.

I remember Paw who had a song about a dog. Grunge was weird.

I was a huge Pavement fan. Now I'd prefer to listen to Smashing Pumpkins which is funny because I hated them and Pavement even had a song dissing them. I just can't help but think Pavement were snobby little turds who somehow thought they were more original than The Smashing Pumpkins because they had cooler influences. Swell Maps/The Fall (for Pavement) over My Bloody Valentine/Rush (for Smashing Pumpkins). How does that work? Malkmus sucked me in for a few years until I realised he was full of shit and just as derivative as anyone else.

used to hate Smashing pumpkins (except for "1979" which always liked) but warmed a bit to them over the years (can't deny "Rat in A Cage")... it's his personality that is problem isn't it, he seems such a dick

i haven't listened to Pavement in years, i do wonder if i would find the group far less impressive than i thought it was at the time of those early EPs and Slanted and Enchanted.... it is a bit record-clerk / record collection eclectically derivative.

lost interest really rapidly at the time as they got more song-oriented. "cut my hair" - never understood why that was considered such an immense, era-defining song.

another one i've not relistened to is Mercury Rev, similar concerns that it would seem mystifying what i saw in them

re Wool that phase when the majors didn't know what they were doing is quite fascinating, they signed all kinds of odd stuff that didn't have a hope of being commercial, bands whose names i can't even even remember. Codeine? Melvins even were on a major for a while.

I can't think of who comes across as a bigger dick, Malkmus or Corgan? Different shades of wanker, I suppose. It would have been great if Corgan wrote an answer song to Pavement's 'Range Life'. That was an opportunity missed.

Wool were ex-bandmates of Dave Grohl so that connection probably got them signed. I checked them out on youtube and they had a tune 'Slightly Under' that could have been a hit. It was a neat intersection between Alice In Chains & Helmet - generic but consummate.

Helmet were another one I hated at the time but found myself enjoying them last night particularly 'Unsung'.

re: Majors signing odd stuff. Who would have thought Buttholes circa Locust Abortion Technician would one day hit the charts. The story of commercial suicide major label grunge signings would make a great book, doncha think?

Also checked out Paw and their tune 'Jesse' last night, loved it. Another generic yet consummate performance. Were songs about dogs Grunge's greatest contribution to pop culture?